First time ever: I got stiffed on a contract

Hi, all -

Anyone out there do any sort of Independent Contracting? I ask because I got screwed today by a client up in Denver. Unfortunately, I fear that I have no recourse, since this was the one single client whom I did not have an Independent Contractor agreement with. I started to tell this guy that I do *not* work on contingency, and the more firm I became with that stance, the more he resisted. I guess I'm just going to have to write it off, and maybe drop a name and a company name pretty soon, in the hopes that any of you guys can give it a second thought if you come across doing any work for this guy again.

So I guess what I'm asking is, what would you do in a situation like this? I do want to let people know not to work with this guy ever, but I don't want to tarnish anything if I find a way to bring this to court to recover my losses. I'm never one to talk bad about someone, but I'm more concerned about other people who might also get stiffed by this guy. It's a nasty situation.

Anyone have any thoughts?